tag: local tax

In 2016, when local authorities had been able to levy municipal taxes for more than a year already, we summarised the lessons that had been learned up to then from this newest genre of local taxes. At the time, we were waiting with bated breath to see what the future would bring, that is; to see just how creative local governments would get in thinking up new taxes. So what did ever happen to the ‘kitsch tax’, the ‘pony tax’ and all those other local levies? Now that a few years have passed, the time has come for us to once again peer into the weird and wonderful world of municipal taxes.

Our traditional survey again looks at how many types of taxes there are in Hungary. The number of Hungarian taxes has fallen by one again this year, so we’ve counted 58 this time. The decrease, however, is of a technical nature only, while at the same time we continue to live with taxes such as the seemingly ineradicable charge payable on household employees or the newly introduced poster tax.

Don’t worry! There aren’t any such taxes for the time being. But we do have taxes on tasteless buildings, boat tax, pony tax, telephone mast tax, tractor tax, and even arable land tax – just to mention a few of the municipal taxes that add spice to our everyday lives. We aren’t completely defenceless, however, if the local authorities do try and levy any of these taxes on us.

Software developer companies fall under a very favourable corporate income taxation in Hungary. Moreover, their income is local business tax exempt. Surprisingly, however, most of such companies are not aware of their beneficial status, losing billions of forints as a consequence.